Lewis, Ted (originally, Friedman, Theodore Leopold)

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Lewis, Ted (originally, Friedman, Theodore Leopold)

Lewis, Ted (originally, Friedman, Theodore Leopold), stylized bandleader, singer, and clarinetist; b. Circleville, Ohio, June 6, 1892; d. N.Y, Aug. 25, 1971. With his cane and the battered top hat that he liked to roll off his head and down his arm, his archly spoken delivery of lyrics, and his catch-phrase, “Is everybody happy?,” Lewis had enough trademark gimmicks to seem mannered to many. But if entertaining consists of constructing a popular persona and sticking to it, he was unquestionably a successful entertainer in vaudeville, nightclubs, theater, and movies, and he was among the best-selling recording artists of the 1920s.

He learned to play the clarinet in public school, and he and his brother Edgar played in a local band, after which he was part of the vaudeville act Rose, Young and Friedman. While appearing in vaudeville in S.C., he adopted his stage name as part of the duo Lewis and Lewis with comedian Eddie Lewis. Arriving in N.Y. in 1915, he performed at the Coll. Arms Cabaret, then joined Earl Fuller’s Band in Coney Island. That same year he married dancer Adah Becker; the marriage lasted 56 years, until his death. He formed his own fivepiece group, The Ted Lewis Nut Band, in 1917, opening at Rector’s Restaurant. After his first number he asked the audience, “Is everybody happy?” The reaction caused him to repeat the question in his performances from then on.

When he won a top hat from a cabbie in a crap game, it became a stage prop. In 1918 he opened his own club, Bai Tabarin (the first of several), and introduced his theme song, “When My Baby Smiles at Me,” which he wrote with Bill Munro and Andrew B. Sterling; he sang it in the 1919 edition of The Greenwich Village Follies (N.Y, July 15, 1919) and recorded it for Columbia Records, resulting in his first best-selling disc in July 1920. He next appeared in the second 1919 edition of the Ziegfeld Midnight Frolic (N.Y., Oct. 2, 1919) with Fanny Brice and W. C. Fields. He and his band were then in the 1921 edition of The Greenwich Village Follies (N.Y, Aug. 31,1921), and his next big record hit came with “All by Myself” in October. He also appeared in the 1922 edition of The Greenwich Village Follies (N.Y, Sept. 12,1922). “O! Katharina” was his next major record hit in May 1925.

On Nov. 15,1926, Lewis and his band backed Sophie Tucker on a new recording of her theme song, “Some of These Days”; it became a gold-selling hit in March 1927. Lewis appeared in two Broadway revues that year, Rufus Le Mate’s Affairs (N.Y, March 28,1927) and Artists and Models (N.Y, Nov. 15,1927). Ruth Etting fronted his band for the hit recording of “Is Everybody Happy Now?” (music and lyrics by Lewis, Maurice Rubens, and Jack Osterman), which he had introduced in Artists and Models, in March 1928. He made his film debut in Is Everybody Happy? (1929), following it the same year with The Show of Shows.

Lewis’s most successful recordings of the early 1930s were “Just a Gigolo” in February 1931, “In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town” in June 1932, and “Lazybones” in July 1933. He made film appearances in Here Comes the Band (1935); Manhattan Merry-Go-Round (1937); Hold That Ghost (1941; performing another of his signature songs, “Me and My Shadow”); Is Everybody Happy (1943; his film biography, in which he played himself); and Follow the Boys (1944). He continued to perform with his band into the 1960s.

Though disdained by jazz critics, Lewis employed many excellent jazz musicians in his band and on his records over the years, including Mugsy Spanier, George Brunis, Benny Goodman, Fats Waller, Frank Teschemacher, Jimmy Dorsey, and Jack Teagarden.

—William Ruhlmann

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Lewis, Ted (originally, Friedman, Theodore Leopold)

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